


chance at love

by navaan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Ficlet, Flash Fic, M/M, Missing Scene, Possibly Unrequited Love, Steve Angst, Steve Rogers Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 15:45:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14814260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Tony is dead. And Steve has to go on now in that knowledge, protecting Vision and the Infinity Stone.





	chance at love

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a fill for my 2018 STONY MCU Bingo card for the space “Steve Rogers needs a hug”.

The moment the phone rings, Steve is on his feet. He's been waiting, counting on the fact that Tony would call when he needs him. His heart leaps in anticipation to hear Tony's voice. 

“Steve?”

It's not Tony. 

The air is knocked out of his lungs as he listens, realizes it's Bruce. By the time he has heard most of the story he has found a television set and seen the first pictures on the news channel. “Iron Man's whereabouts unknown” the white letters read as they run past him. 

“What happened exactly?”

“He's on the ship. He followed Strange and the kid and... I think they were all taken.”

“Taken,” Steve repeats. 

“Yes,” Bruce says slowly. 

Steve looks at the devastation wrought on New York. “They don't look like the kind to take prisoners,” he has to point out, rational, always the strategist. 

_Tony,_ he thinks and it feels like he's falling apart. _I didn't want things to end like this. I wanted us to get back on better terms at some point. Why didn't I call you? Why did you never call me?_

“They have the time stone now, Steve, or they will have it very soon. Tony thought you'd know where to find Vision. We need to warn him... Protect the stone.”

His thoughts calm. He still feels hollow, but this is no time to grieve. He'll honor the friend he's lost by going on to fight his fight.

If there's hope, then Tony'll be back soon.

“I know where to find Vision.”

* * *

He tells Ross, that he isn't looking for forgiveness. And he isn't. Not really. The only person here whose forgiveness would have mattered isn't here anymore. 

Even hours later there's no sign of Tony, of the person holding the time gem or of the kid. There's no distress signal or call. 

“By now they must be lightyears away. If they are still...”

“Don't say it,” Rhodes orders, but Steve knows that after what Bruce has seen on the Asgardian ship, they have to expect the worst. If Tony has won whatever fight has been going on, wouldn't he be back already? 

Steve listens tiredly while Bruce explains what he knows of Thanos.

Thor, he says, is dead.

If Thor is dead, then Tony is too. 

A pooling darkness grips him and for a moment Steve sees stars. Time to accept.

He's lost Tony without ever making it right.

Without ever telling him.

He watches Wanda and Vision. He's been watching them all this time – from the Quinjet to here. They're in love. Nobody can fault them for being in love. They've fought on opposite sides and yet they have tried their best to make it work.

Like he should have.

“No, we have to destroy it,” Vision says and points at the gem. He's the one who knows the infinity stone best, but what he is suggesting is suicide. Wanda's distress is like the darkness inside of him. It scraps along the edges of his sadness and manages to pull him up.

Tony would never have stood for this. And Steve, who has been too much of a coward to ever tell Tony what he felt for him because he realized it far too late, won't stand for it either.

“We do not trade lives,” he tells Vision and is confronted with his own sacrifice. Once he gave himself up to save the world. Today he doesn't think it counts. Tony has made the sacrifice play yet again to buy them time, but this time there's no coming back for him. That's enough. That sacrifice has to count and Steve will make sure that it will.

Wanda's distress, Visions determination, their love. He's relieved to hear when Bruce suggests it might be possible to remove the stone without harming Vision.

He knows the smarter thing to do would be to destroy it.

But it would destroy Vision.

And that in turn would destroy Wanda.

He already feels his own grief so hard edged and terrible that he doesn't want to put it into words.

Nobody knows.

Nobody will understand.

He never said: “I love Tony. I love you, Tony.”

Nobody will know how much he's lost again.

Not even Tony knew how much he means to Steve.

He's lost his chance; he's not even sure there ever was one.

He'll do what he can to buy this love a chance. He won't let the same happen to Vision and Wanda.

“I know somewhere,” he says. They're going to Wakanda. 

To save Vision.

To save what he can't have anymore.

And make Tony's sacrifice count.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me for fic updates on [tumblr](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/navaanwrites). This fic has a post on the tumblr [here](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/post/174462153899/chance-at-love-navaan-the-avengers-marvel) in case you want to share it. It also has a page on my [Dreamwidth](LINK).


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